Actor Idris Elba, who is making his directorial debut with "Yardie", said filmmaking is the "hardest" thing he has ever done.

The 45-year-old actor said he had never thought making a film would be that difficult a task.

"It's been a lot of fun but the hardest thing I've done. I never realised how difficult it was going to be, but I loved it and getting to spend time in Jamaica was phenomenal...

"I consider myself fortunate to have had the opportunity to direct this material, with which I can identify quite a bit. The story takes place in London and Jamaica, and it's based on the novel (Victor Headley's 'Yardie'), which was popular urban fiction in the 1980s and 1990s," Elba said, according to Contactmusic.

"Yardie" is about a young Jamaican named "D", who arrives in London in the early 1980s and unexpectedly discovers the man who assassinated his revered brother in Jamaica a decade earlier.